DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017 Preview

25 August 2017 13:18

DreamHack Masters returns to Malmö, Sweden, for a second time from Wednesday 30th August 2017 to Sunday 3rd September 2017, with a heavyweight roster of 16 CS:GO teams battling it out for a main share of the $250,000 prize pool at Malmö Arena.

Last year’s DreamHack Masters Malmö 2016 saw over 32 million views online, and was the most viewed CS:GO tournament of the year outside of the Valve Majors. Broadcast in 19 languages, Ninjas in Pyjamas went all the way to lift the trophy, and this year is expected to be even bigger and better than ever before.

The Format

The group stages see teams split into four groups of four in a double-elimination group format, fighting it out in the Cache, Cobblestone, Inferno, Nuke, Mirage, Overpass and Train maps. Inferno is 7/4 with Bet365 to be the most played map, whilst Nuke is 1/1 to be the least played. At 3/1, Train is the favourite map to have the highest CT-side win percentage.

The group stages are closed to the public, but the play-offs will have a live audience and the top two teams from each group will advance to the best-of-three single-elimination bracket play-offs, before the showpiece grand final scheduled for 18:00 on the Sunday.

The Teams and The Groups

The teams are shown below in their respective groups, along with betting odds from Bet365 on winning outright:

Group A

SK Gaming – 10/3

North – 16/1

Cloud9 – 33/1

B.O.O.T-d[S] – 300/1

Group B

Astralis – 10/3

Virtus Pro – 10/1

Natus Vincere – 12/1

Renegades – 150/1

Group C

FaZe – 4/1

Ninjas In Pyjamas – 14/1

Mousesports – 16/1

Gambit Esports – 25/1

Group D

G2 Esports – 8/1

Fnatic – 20/1

Immortals – 25/1

Team EnVyUs – 25/1

A European region is 1/5 on to go all the way, a North American team are 10/3 to come out on top, whilst an Asian team are priced at 300/1 to be the last ones standing – all odds via Bet365.

The action begins with SK Gaming v B.O.O.T-d[S] at 13:00 on the Wednesday, and SK Gaming are priced at 1/14 odds-on for Match Winner 2-Way, whilst their opponents are a wider 13/2. SK’s Marcelo “coldzera” David is 7/1 favourite with Bet365 to be crowned HLTV MVP – a prestigious honour for any CS:GO gamer to receive. The 22-year-old joined SK in July 2016, and will line-up in Sweden as a rifler and secondary AWPer for one of the pre-tournament favourites. SK won the CS:GO Championship Series Season 3 Finals back in June, and were one of 12 direct invites to DreamHack. “coldzera” will be looking to string together several eye-catching displays to lead his team to victory.

Given Ninjas in Pyjamas are reigning champions, they’ll be one team to keep an eye on as the action unfolds. They reigned supreme in April 2016 with a 2-0 grand final victory over Natus Vincere. They actually finished second in Group C behind Team Dignitas but still qualified with the play-offs with two victories and one defeat. In the knockout stages, Ninjas’ 2-0 quarter-final win over Virtus.pro set up a semi-final against GODSENT. Their 2-1 victory saw them into the grand final where they won both the Dust II and Cobblestone maps 16-14 to take home $100,000. They also came out on top at DreamHack Valencia 2017, and will be looking to continue their impressive run of form.

The Qualifiers

B.O.O.T-d[S] (Asia), Renegades (North America), Team EnVyUs and mousesports (Europe) were the four teams who had to qualify for Malmö through their respective regions. The Singaporean-based B.O.O.T outfit secured their place in Sweden after topping the Asia-Oceania Closed Qualifiers. They saw off seven local rivals overall, overcoming TyLoo 2-1 in the final. The triumphed 16-11 in Cobblestone before a 16-6 Overpass reverse resulted in a 16-8 victory playing Train.

In the European qualifiers, EnVyUs and mousesports topped the EU Closed Qualifier after both beating their respective opponents - HellRaisers and FlipSid3 Tactics – 2-0 in the Round of 4. As for Renegades, the North American outfit impressed in qualifying with victories over EZG eSports, Denial eSports, ex-paIN Gaming and Team Liquid from the Round of 16 onwards.

Cloud9 Replace OpTic Gaming

Cloud9 have replaced OpTic Gaming in Group A at DreamHack Malmö 2017, after OpTic withdrew from the event because they didn’t have three of their five players available from their invited line-up. Guidelines state this is an official requirement, and after losing some of their roster, OpTic have now been deemed ineligible to compete in Sweden. However, Cloud9’s five-man team of Will “RUSH” Wierzba, Tarik Celik, Tyler “skadoodle” Latham, Jake “Stewie2k” Yip and Tim “autimatic” Ta have stepped up to take their spot and are 16/1 to reach the final.

Coaching Changes

There are several changes and updated guidelines for coaches to follow in Malmö, based around how they can interact with their team in a live match.

As part of the changes, coaches now have four timeouts per match for 30 seconds each and there are no restrictions when these timeouts can be used. However, only one timeout can be used at any one time, and coaches can now talk for 20 seconds during freeze time, 60 seconds during half time, 30 seconds in half time going to overtime, and 30 seconds in half time during overtime. Everyone is now muted during technical pauses, and unused timeouts will transfer to overtime.